I accepted the advice, and pitched my tent to await the arrival of the Selictar. The same day I was informed that all the large boats had received orders to abandon the attempt to pass the remainder of the third cataract of the Nile. They had already, with great difficulty, got through about fifty difficult passages, and it was reported that there were nearly one hundred more ahead before the third cataract could be got clear of. When the river is full, and the flood, of course, strong, this cataract must, in my opinion, be almost impassable upwards, as, on account of the strange direction of the river, little or no aid can be derived from the wind, and the current in some places, from the straitness of the passages between the rocks and islands, must, in the time of the inundation, be very furious, while the cordel, from the natural obstacles which cover the shore of this cataract, could hardly overcome the difficulties which every mile or two would present.[28] On the first day of the moon Jamisalachar, the Selictar arrived from below, where he had been to collect durra for the army. Two days after I set forward in company with him to pass the Desert. The road for two days lay near the bank of the river. By the middle of the afternoon of the first day we arrived at a pleasant spot on the border of the Nile, where we encamped to pass the night. On the morning following we mounted our horses at sunrise, and by mid-day arrived at a fine pond of water at the foot of a high rock, at no great distance from the river, where we refreshed ourselves and filled the water-skins, as at this place the roads turns into the Desert. We marched from the middle of the afternoon till an hour after midnight, when we halted to sleep. The road for this day was evidently the dry bed of an arm of the Nile, which, during the inundation, is full of water. Even at this season the doum tree and the acacia, which grew on its borders, were green, and coarse long grass was abundant. At sunrise of the sixth day of the moon we again mounted, and set forward in a direction nearly East. Our way lay over low rocky hills, gravelly or sandy plains, and sometimes through valleys containing plenty of coarse grass and acacia trees; but no water is to be found above ground at this season, though it probably might be obtained by sinking wells in some of these valleys. We halted at noon, and in two hours after again mounted, and marched till midnight. Our road lay through a country resembling that we had passed the day before. On the morrow morning, a little after day-light, we proceeded on our journey, and at noon halted at the only well of water we found on our route. It lies near two high hills of black granite. The water was yellow and dirty, and was almost rejected by the thirsty camels. By the middle of the afternoon we were again on horseback, and marched till midnight, when some of the camels dropping and dying, and others giving